00:00:10Hi everybody.
We're here with Al Schmitt
and we're gonna do a little bit of
miking of a singer-songwriter.

00:00:18- Let's put one of these on the guitar.
- Alright!
- So we need a...
- You mean a mic stand would be useful?
- It's a CU-55 that
we're gonna put on the guitar.

00:00:29- We'll use one of these on the vocal.

00:00:34- You get comfortable, I'll move
around you. Don't worry about that.

00:00:39- So you're aiming for
the sound hole of the guitar.

00:00:42- Yeah.
- Cool!
- Are you worried about phase or distance?
- No, not at this point, I'm not.

00:00:49- We'll see what happen.

00:00:51- Just vocals or guitar as well?
- Both! Yeah, do both.

00:01:17- What did you think about this?
- I'm gonna take this mic off
and put the 100K up.

00:01:22I just didn't like the way
it sounded on the guitar.

00:01:26It sounded a little... muffled.

00:01:29- Muffled? So you want a more open...
- I didn't hear the clarity
of what I heard in here
when he was playing before,
so we're gonna change this.

00:01:38Normally I don't do this. Normally
my assistant does all this stuff.

00:01:42- Yeah, but today I'm the assistant,
and I'm not the best assistant!
- Did you put a windscreen on here?
- No. Let's do that!
Your popper... Monsieur Knox.

00:01:56- You don't have anything to do
until Saturday, right?
Since it can take a while...
- It's all good!
- It's basically the same position.
- Pretty much the same, yes.

00:02:08- You're just trying
a different mic color.

00:02:11To summarize:
Al switched the CU-55 for the 100K,
it was a cardio, now it's an omni,
and this mic is supposed to have
a very wide, super broad high-end.

00:02:55Amazing!
What are you hearing here
that you like or don't like?
- Well I like
what I'm hearing pretty much.

00:03:08I don't think there's
too much voice in the guitar mic.

00:03:12And there's certainly not too much
guitar going into the vocal mic.

00:03:19The things I would do, you know,
is add a little echo to it,
to his vocal maybe, at some point.

00:03:27And that's it! I never use EQ.

00:03:30- You don't use EQ at all?
- Ever!
- When I learned, none of the boards had EQ.

00:03:35We had one equalizer, and if you used it,
it equalized everything.

00:03:42- On or Off!
Make you selection, at any time.

00:03:44- So we learned not to use it,
and the same with compression,
we used
very little compression back then.

00:03:52- I think that's wonderful.

00:03:54So basically, say if you didn't like
the sound of what you heard right now,
we're lucky you do,
if you didn't, what would you do?
- I would change the mics.
- You would change the mics?
- Yeah, absolutely.

00:04:05- You also mix a lot of records,
you don't just track.

00:04:08So, what I'm getting from you,
when you mix a record,
you also avoid using EQs?
- Yes!
The only time I use EQ is if I've got
something that someone else recorded.

00:04:20If it's something I recorded,
I never use EQ.

00:04:25In rare occasions.

00:04:26- So your mixing process must be
incredibly fast.

00:04:29- It is fast!
- For example, what's the record
you've done recently
that you like the sound of,
that you're proud of?
- I like the sound almost of everything.

00:04:38The last things I did are Gloria Estefan,
her new "Standards" album,
the Paul McCartney album...

00:04:45- So in the context of a record,
and I know you do,
where there's backbeat,
and a drummer hitting hard,
you're still able to do it
without EQ and compression.

00:04:54- Yeah, I do, yeah.

00:04:56Well I use... like on the drums, I use...

00:05:00I use a 452 on the snare,
and I have a 57 under the snare,
out of phase.

00:05:07And that's it.
And it's just the blend of those two...

00:05:09that gives me all the pop I need.

00:05:12- I think that's the most refreshing
thing I heard in a long time.

00:05:15- Well, you know...
Tommy Dowd was my mentor...

00:05:19- Tom Dowd.
- Yes, for eight years.

00:05:22That's just the way I learned.

00:05:24I've been around it
since I'm 7 or 8 years old,
and, you know, I watched
when they had to take their shoes off
while they were recording,
so you couldn't hear the stomping.

00:05:35- Great! Do you want to try
a different mic on the vocal?
- Let's try the 100K on the vocal...
- Let's do that!
- To see where that goes...

00:05:45So we're gonna take this off.

00:05:49Not that we didn't like it. We liked it.

00:05:52But we're gonna change it to see...
- Just to see how it feels.

00:06:10If you have a cheap mic
and something's leaking into it,
it's gonna sound that cheap sound.

00:06:18But if you have a great microphone,
and you got leakage coming into it,
it just opens everything up even more,
it makes things sound so much bigger.

00:06:27That's why on all my string dates,
and all my big band dates,
almost all of the mics are in omni.
Almost all of them.

00:06:35And we don't worry.
The leakage is what makes it swell!
- Great.
- Swell!
- So, Will, how are you feeling,
having played that song
about 800 times in 24 hours?
- Do you know anything else?
- It's the only one!
- Here we go.

00:06:57- Back it off a touch. Are you okay?
- Yeah!
- Ok!
- Would you like to perform for us,
your Highness?
- That's nice...

00:08:14If I was recording him for a record
right now,
I would probably change his mic
and add something else
that had a little more of a chest.

00:08:24- Do you ever use 2 mics on the vocal?
- Not really, no.

00:08:28- So you find a mic that works.
- I find one that works.

00:08:32And sometimes it can be
a 50 year-old mic.

00:08:36- I think this change was fantastic.
I liked the tone of it before,
but changing this mic
opened up the top.

00:08:42- Yeah, I agree.
- Great!
We're gonna record a whole pass
with this. Are you happy with this?
- Yeah, fine!
- Ok, let's record this song. Here we go!
- The guitar mic is giving
a little of warmth to the...

00:09:18- To the lead.
Isn't it a wonderful song?
- Yeah! He's terrific.

00:10:15- When we...

00:10:17When we learned, on vocals...

00:10:20What happened is we...

00:10:24we learned the song
as quickly as possible,
and then we would
ride the gain on the vocal.

00:10:28So it would be like...

00:10:30- Manual compression!
- Manual compression, exactly.

00:10:34And that's what I do all the time,
with Diana Krall,
or with whoever I'm recording.

00:10:40- That makes for
a certain very special sound.

00:10:43- Well, it's a way you learn something.

00:10:45You know, I've done that
ever since I was a little kid,
so it's just come second nature to me.

00:10:51I tell people what I do,
I don't tell them to do that!
But I find a lot of my assistants
who have worked with me for a while
all do that now.

00:11:01- Well, to me it's a better sound.

00:11:05The least amount of processing is
the best amount of processing.

00:11:08- Right! Exactly.

00:11:10- Thank you Will,
that was masterful, as always.

00:11:13- What I tell people all the time,
you know...

00:11:17Sometimes, just moving a mic an inch
makes all the difference in the world.

00:11:22And sometimes, obviously,
changing a mic quickly, I mean...

00:11:27My microphones are my EQ!
That's how I work.

00:11:31- We saw an incredible difference
just between those two mics,
with the same performer,
in the same room. I think it's fantastic.

00:11:37Thanks so much for watching.
Thank you Al...

00:11:40- My pleasure!
- For the incredible wisdom,
and for letting us know
how it should be done.

00:11:46- Well I'm not sure about that, but...

00:11:49it was my pleasure to work with
the Sanken mics
that I haven't used before,
and to get to know those microphones.

00:11:56- I think the things
that were said today are very important
and I'm really, really happy we were
able to capture that on video.

00:12:02- Thank you!
- You're welcome.

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If you would like to know more about the amazing Will Knox, please visit his website.

Al Schmitt is a mixing ang and recording engineer whose talent has been showcased over more than 150 gold and platinum albums. Al has been around since the beginning of the music recording industry and has witnessed all technological changes that occured in the past decades.

His is the proud owner of 24 Grammy Awards (no less) and has worked with the biggest artists and producers in pop, jazz, classical, and country musics.

Everybody who has attented a recording / mixing session with Al says there is something magical about the way he does things. His intuition and years of experience allow him to position microphones faster than anyone else. He just knows how it is going to sound. Then pushes the faders on his Neve console and that's the sound everybody was waiting for.

Al Schmit's love for minimalistic eq and compression moves (if at all) makes for a very natural and unprocessed signature sound. He would rather record it right... than fix it in the mix later.

You can witness Al's amazing skills by watching him record and mix Cyrille Aimée on pureMix.

That was extremely refreshing and insightful. Wow, no compression or eq ever material he records. I'm going to try to incorporate that in my recording and mixing too. It will make me work harder to get a better recording.

courtlaw

2016 Jun 24

Would love to see another video of Al !!!!

danielteo

2016 Feb 29

Great video, what a class!

miloreason833

2016 Feb 02

Just listen....

Fergie77

2016 Jan 17

I would have loved to have seen him do Toto IV.

HANSON MICHAEL

2016 Jan 02

Thank you!

rush444

2015 Dec 09

Brilliant insight.

creaktor

2015 Nov 29

by far the most inspiring I've seen. I love to see video's where it comes down to autodidact style and some common sense with natural approach. Why EQ when you can change the mic. It gives so much more.

RemyAnnDavid

2015 Nov 25

Totally fabulous to see and listen to Al Schmitt. Creating his sound through his microphone selection. Dispensing with phase altering EQ. In comparison to the completely different technique that George Massenburg is so well known for. Which involves careful manipulation of parametric equalization. So what does Al do? If he gets a recording track by George? What does George do? If he gets a recording from Al? Will George then EQ Al's recording? And will Al try to undo the EQ that Massenburg added? Or do they both just growl and snort and Say nasty things under their breath about each other?

Spudmuffin

2015 Aug 06

Kudos! As you said, that's "the most refreshing thing I've heard in a long time". I've heard about using mics as the only EQ before, from other people, but to hear it directly from Al Schmitt gives it a certain Je ne sais quoi.
This brings it back to basics. A truly FABulous way to learn recording. :) It would be an EQually powerful discipline to practice tracking to a limit of 4-tracks, bouncing as needed – like old school. No "fixing it in the mix". Just laying it down straight, brick by brick, so to speak. Seriously: imagine trying to straighten bricks after the concrete had set...

PSW

2015 Jul 14

On Fleek!

RobbyD

2015 Feb 26

"LEAKAGE is your FRIEND"!" (When you use good mics.) I love it. The name Al Schmitt has appeared on records I've loved since before I read album credits. I could spend days hangin' in a studio just to watch and listen to this master. THANKS so much for this video.

bgrichting

2015 Feb 11

Amazing stuff, could have watched way longer as Al was doing his magic :-)

Ten20SevenAudio

2015 Feb 10

Incredible.... To be half the engineer that man is would be the highest aspiration I can imagine in my career. We can all learn from his approach... Am I going to never use EQ again? Doubtful. Though, it really does challenge the ubiquitously popular notions of fledgling engineers, twisting knobs just for twisting's sake, or putting their "touch" on everything. Trying to process EVERY track was a mistake I had to unlearn when I became serious about my craft. But to see someone like Al work is simply nothing short of amazing, for every intent and purpose of the word.

Nappe

2015 Feb 08

Awesome video... back to basics and back to the true Craftsmanship of our artform!

jmr

2015 Feb 02

Great stuff, Fab! I'd love to see you step up the challenge and get a strummer/basher type
player and record that simutaniously with the vocal. I've battled that type of singer songwriter for 25 years
and it's always a struggle. In fact, I most often end up using 1 mic because phase is such a problem when either
the vocal or guitar are out of balance volume wise.
I'd love to see what Al or George or yourself would do with talent less than Will or Diana Krall.
Thanks!

Fabulous Fab

2015 Feb 02

@mer: we did not discuss his reverb techniques. this was solely focused on mic placement. He does mean reverb when he says echo.

mer

2015 Feb 02

Hey Fab, did Al talk to you about panning 3-5 reverb returns a certain way on the vocal track? I assume he meant reverb when he says echo in the video but I want to know his effects techniques since he doesn't eq anything. Thanks!

aten

2015 Jan 31

Wow. I didnt know some engineers use different mics as EQs.

morgot21

2015 Jan 31

Al Fab and Will: Masters!

jwelshman

2015 Jan 31

Awesome video, Al is the man

audio.geek

2015 Jan 31

I did really enjoy watching George in previous recording video and now watching Al to work his magic just puts a smile on my face. Thumbs up to Will, on every video he always puts in emotion into performance which is pleasure to listen.